Generally, refrigeration equipment stores or keeps food or articles at a cold temperature by circulating a refrigerant through a series of refrigeration cycles, which include compression, condensation, expansion and evaporation.
Herein, the refrigerant is compressed at a high temperature and pressure as it goes through a compressor operating on a power supply. The refrigerant is delivered to a condenser through a pipe connecting between the compressor and the condenser and thus it is liquefied.
The refrigerant becomes wet, saturated vapor as it goes through a capillary connected to the condenser and enters an evaporator.
The refrigerant absorbs evaporation latent heat as it moves through the evaporator and thus it is gasified. As the refrigerant is gasified, surrounding air is cooled down and this cools down or freezes a refrigerator or freezer.
Subsequently, the refrigerant becomes a low-temperature gas-phase refrigerant and it is ejected from the evaporator through a suction pipe. The ejected low-temperature gas-phase refrigerant enters the compressor and becomes high-temperature and high-pressure vapor and repeats the cycle.
Herein, to help heat exchange between the suction pipe and the refrigerant transferring into the capillary, the suction pipe contacts part of the capillary to thereby form a suction pipe assembly.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a conventional suction pipe assembly, and FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the suction pipe assembly of FIG. 1 cut along an A-A line.
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, the conventional suction pipe assembly includes a suction pipe 310 and a capillary 320 whose external side surfaces contact each other in a longitudinal direction.
The suction pipe 310 and the capillary 320 may be combined at a portion 330 through a technique such as welding.
As welding, brazing or soldering may be used to combine the suction pipe 310 and the capillary 320. The soldering is usually performed using tin (Sn).
Also, to improve the heat exchange between the suction pipe 310 and the capillary 320 and corrosion-resistance thereof, the suction pipe 310 and the capillary 320 are usually formed of copper.